What do you think?
Rate this book
سيدة أبها
رواية تحكي عن تاريخ عسير, ونعيمة ابنة الشيخ التي اختطفها القراصنة وبيعت في أبها كجارية لأحد الزعماء
Unknown Binding
First published May 3, 2010
6 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
William Newton
2 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
"Dr Kenneth Newton, who has died aged 82, was a Harley Street doctor who treated British and foreign royalty, the aristocracy and celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr and Dame Margot Fonteyn."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu...
"Dr Kenneth Newton, who has died aged 82, was a Harley Street doctor who treated British and foreign royalty, the aristocracy and celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr and Dame Margot Fonteyn."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 2, 2016
In which I contemplate complex dinner party metaphors instead of paying attention to the plot and stuff
Ivor spent his whole life dreaming of the Arabia of his father's tales: of the heroic exploits possible in the constant warring land. Tales heard in his father's brief stops home before Robert Willoughby inevitably returned to the desert... until he stopped coming back completely. Now Ivor has come to the peninsula himself, commissioned by the Royal Navy to find locusts, but really to follow the traces of memory and seek out the truth about his father: the man called 'Ullobi'.
Let's start off with the positive: William Newton is clearly very enthusiastic about early 20th century Arabia, an enthusiasm even obvious to someone completely ignorant on the topic as myself when I started The Mistress of Abha. The map in the front of the book surely gets a thorough workout, as Newton crams his narrative full of travels to and from the named locations. Names! Each page furthermore brims with the names of the multitude of warring clans and their history, names of individuals and past battles. This is all well and good, but in this euphoria of info-dumping, Newton forgets to show us the actual, you know, story.
Why should we care about any of these historical story minutiae? Ivor as a character is a mere trifle, and as a whole, all the characters come off as one-dimensional devices rather than real creations. The bulk of the novel itself consists of lots and lots of second-hand telling from one character to another (as already noted by other reviewers), and frankly, it's dreadfully dull.
I kept reading on, hoping some urgency would emerge, and eventually some did, in the form of trite melodrama... a thin skeleton indeed, one that seemed more like a parody of the writing of that time period than any thought-out concept.
Ultimately, reading The Mistress of Abha is kind of like being stuck at the far side of the table with that one person who cannot read conversational signals. You respect him(her) and all, but really he's going on and on about the intricacies of the wahwahwah and how really not enough people know about this blahblahblah, and you're nodding politely, but really actually multitasking with hitting the sauce and desperately trying to make eye contact with your party buddy to bat out "SAVE ME" in Morse code. Rating: 1.5 stars
*I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
Ivor spent his whole life dreaming of the Arabia of his father's tales: of the heroic exploits possible in the constant warring land. Tales heard in his father's brief stops home before Robert Willoughby inevitably returned to the desert... until he stopped coming back completely. Now Ivor has come to the peninsula himself, commissioned by the Royal Navy to find locusts, but really to follow the traces of memory and seek out the truth about his father: the man called 'Ullobi'.
Let's start off with the positive: William Newton is clearly very enthusiastic about early 20th century Arabia, an enthusiasm even obvious to someone completely ignorant on the topic as myself when I started The Mistress of Abha. The map in the front of the book surely gets a thorough workout, as Newton crams his narrative full of travels to and from the named locations. Names! Each page furthermore brims with the names of the multitude of warring clans and their history, names of individuals and past battles. This is all well and good, but in this euphoria of info-dumping, Newton forgets to show us the actual, you know, story.
Why should we care about any of these historical story minutiae? Ivor as a character is a mere trifle, and as a whole, all the characters come off as one-dimensional devices rather than real creations. The bulk of the novel itself consists of lots and lots of second-hand telling from one character to another (as already noted by other reviewers), and frankly, it's dreadfully dull.
I kept reading on, hoping some urgency would emerge, and eventually some did, in the form of trite melodrama... a thin skeleton indeed, one that seemed more like a parody of the writing of that time period than any thought-out concept.
Ultimately, reading The Mistress of Abha is kind of like being stuck at the far side of the table with that one person who cannot read conversational signals. You respect him(her) and all, but really he's going on and on about the intricacies of the wahwahwah and how really not enough people know about this blahblahblah, and you're nodding politely, but really actually multitasking with hitting the sauce and desperately trying to make eye contact with your party buddy to bat out "SAVE ME" in Morse code. Rating: 1.5 stars
*I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
September 26, 2010
I think perhaps there is an interesting story hidden in here somewhere, but the writing is so lifeless it's hard to see it or sustain much interest. For an adventure story, Newton does an awful lot of telling and not enough showing. There are occasional bouts of action but mostly they happen at a remove.
A young Englishman, Ivor Willoughby, sets out for Arabia in 1930, ostensibly to eradicate locust breeding grounds at a colonial outpost (I wasn't exactly sure how his education in classics and Near East history and languages qualified him for that, but I guess that's 1930 for you). Really, his goal is to find his father, a swashbuckling military officer who has abandoned his English family to live a life of adventure. Ullobi, as he is known (a local corruption of "Willoughby") has disappeared and though no one admits to knowing where he might be, Ivor hears enough tidbits of information to propel his search. In particular, he hears stories of a regal slave woman turned warrior, Na'ema, who knew Ullobi. Much of the narrative concerns Na'ema's husband Tabarhla, who was also Ullobi's best friend, his harem and slaves, and the rivalries and battles of various tribes taking place in or around the city of Abha. If Ivor can find Na'ema, he believes he will find out what happened to his father.
There is a large cast of characters, tribes, and factions, with very Middle Eastern names; if you have any hope of following the narrative, you will have to stay vigilant. It was difficult for me. My curiosity was moderately piqued only in the last 30 pages, as Ivor closed in on his goal and found a surprise as well.
Won in Giveaway. Review to come.
A young Englishman, Ivor Willoughby, sets out for Arabia in 1930, ostensibly to eradicate locust breeding grounds at a colonial outpost (I wasn't exactly sure how his education in classics and Near East history and languages qualified him for that, but I guess that's 1930 for you). Really, his goal is to find his father, a swashbuckling military officer who has abandoned his English family to live a life of adventure. Ullobi, as he is known (a local corruption of "Willoughby") has disappeared and though no one admits to knowing where he might be, Ivor hears enough tidbits of information to propel his search. In particular, he hears stories of a regal slave woman turned warrior, Na'ema, who knew Ullobi. Much of the narrative concerns Na'ema's husband Tabarhla, who was also Ullobi's best friend, his harem and slaves, and the rivalries and battles of various tribes taking place in or around the city of Abha. If Ivor can find Na'ema, he believes he will find out what happened to his father.
There is a large cast of characters, tribes, and factions, with very Middle Eastern names; if you have any hope of following the narrative, you will have to stay vigilant. It was difficult for me. My curiosity was moderately piqued only in the last 30 pages, as Ivor closed in on his goal and found a surprise as well.
Won in Giveaway. Review to come.
February 4, 2017
I wasn't sure why this book got poor reviews on Goodreads... then I noticed they were all by people who had won a free copy in a draw.
Ok. This isn't a book that will appeal to the masses.
It goes into a lot of detail on the tribes, villages, landscape and battles of Arabia in the early 1900s, in the process of telling a story.
If you like that kind of thing, this is a great book! And I do. I really do.
4 stars, not 5, because the proofreader missed a few things, the story has a little hole in it, and the plot twist is given away in the title.
Ok. This isn't a book that will appeal to the masses.
It goes into a lot of detail on the tribes, villages, landscape and battles of Arabia in the early 1900s, in the process of telling a story.
If you like that kind of thing, this is a great book! And I do. I really do.
4 stars, not 5, because the proofreader missed a few things, the story has a little hole in it, and the plot twist is given away in the title.
September 3, 2019
I very much enjoyed this novel by William Newton and was sad to see on the book cover that he just passed away this year. I would have liked him to know that he transported me to Arabia - a place I know very little about, nor did I think I wanted to know about, and made the lives of his characters come alive for me. This book is really two stories - Ivor Willoughbys search across Arabia for his father, and his father Roberts' story who as a military man disappeared on a mission many years ago. It has action, adventure, mystery, danger, beauty and it's nicely written - even funny in a few spots. I especially enjoyed the two lead female characters, Na'ema and Etza her slave and their stories. It kept my attention and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of Arabia/Middle East. It makes the history/cultural lessons go down a lot easier.
Recommended.
Recommended.
November 3, 2018
Loved the book
May 3, 2011
In The Mistress of Abha by William Newton, Ivor Willoughby goes searching for the father he barely knew. A British soldier stationed in Arabia, Ivor met his father, Robert, on only 2 occasions and for only a handful of days in total, but Robert was a legend in their household and beyond. Ivor is determined, from a very young age, to go to Arabia for himself and see the land that so enthralled his father. His father’s legend, the story of Ullobi, is not at all what he imagined. It’s much, much more.
The Mistress of Abha is a dense story, full of detail and description — everything from the type of car Robert Willoughby drove when he was seducing the young ladies of Oxfordshire to the sounds and smells of the Arabian markets that Ivor explores, looking for someone with the information he seeks. If you’re someone who likes to get right to the heart of the story, get right to the action, pass this by; you’ll just be frustrated. The first third of the book is spent setting up Ivor’s trip to Arabia: his father’s courtship of his mother, his childhood, his education. Then the story changes, as Ivor meets Etza, a former slave who may hold the key to his father’s whereabouts.
Ivor starts out in true British style, believing he will go to Arabia (as an officer in the Royal Navy’s Locust Bureau, a job that allows him a great deal of freedom of movement), ask a few questions and easily track down his missing father. After all, his father is a legend — all the officers who spoke of him said so! The reality is very different. The Arabia he visits can’t help but be a a bit disappointing, after his years of dreams and fantasies. Robert may be a legend in the British Army, but he is not as well-known to the locals as Ivor hoped. He much follow a much more circuitous path to track down the story, which eventually leads him to Etza and the story of Na’ema.
The book is full of wonderful detail, but it’s not a travelogue and it might not be the Middle East as we would recognize it today. It is still under British influence, but as full of complex and twisting politics as it is today. Ivor is an idealistic young man from a wealthy family with a job that affords him a great deal of leisure. He travels across Arabia, occasionally making a few notes on some locusts, but mostly engrossed in his search. He is set upon by marauders, captured, injured, feasted and treated as an honored guest, so it is never a boring trip, for Ivor or his readers.
My copy of The Mistress of Abha was provided by the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
Originally posted on my website, AliveontheShelves.com.
The Mistress of Abha is a dense story, full of detail and description — everything from the type of car Robert Willoughby drove when he was seducing the young ladies of Oxfordshire to the sounds and smells of the Arabian markets that Ivor explores, looking for someone with the information he seeks. If you’re someone who likes to get right to the heart of the story, get right to the action, pass this by; you’ll just be frustrated. The first third of the book is spent setting up Ivor’s trip to Arabia: his father’s courtship of his mother, his childhood, his education. Then the story changes, as Ivor meets Etza, a former slave who may hold the key to his father’s whereabouts.
Ivor starts out in true British style, believing he will go to Arabia (as an officer in the Royal Navy’s Locust Bureau, a job that allows him a great deal of freedom of movement), ask a few questions and easily track down his missing father. After all, his father is a legend — all the officers who spoke of him said so! The reality is very different. The Arabia he visits can’t help but be a a bit disappointing, after his years of dreams and fantasies. Robert may be a legend in the British Army, but he is not as well-known to the locals as Ivor hoped. He much follow a much more circuitous path to track down the story, which eventually leads him to Etza and the story of Na’ema.
The book is full of wonderful detail, but it’s not a travelogue and it might not be the Middle East as we would recognize it today. It is still under British influence, but as full of complex and twisting politics as it is today. Ivor is an idealistic young man from a wealthy family with a job that affords him a great deal of leisure. He travels across Arabia, occasionally making a few notes on some locusts, but mostly engrossed in his search. He is set upon by marauders, captured, injured, feasted and treated as an honored guest, so it is never a boring trip, for Ivor or his readers.
My copy of The Mistress of Abha was provided by the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
Originally posted on my website, AliveontheShelves.com.
November 4, 2010
Mistress of Abha, William Newton
The book begins in the early part of the 1900's. A young boy, Ivor Willoughby, desperately missing his military father, who is stationed in the Middle East in a territory from which he cannot return for regular visits and eventually, for none at all, makes it his life's dream to one day, grow up and search for him. He follows his father's path into the military and when he posts to the same region, discovers that his father is somewhat of a legend, called Ullobi, but no one will either discuss him or else no one really knows where he is currently. However, his adventures precede him wherever he turns up. Coincidentally, he runs into people who knew his father and begins to piece together a history for him complete with a female warrior of fantastic strength and courage whose identity is hidden, possibly for her own protection, from the Wahhabis who would punish her if they knew she was a warrior.
Told with a subtle humor and hints of historic memory about the birth of the various nations of the Middle East and their quest for domination and/or independence, this story moves along, almost like a fantasy. At times, I am not sure if the memory is one related to reality or a supernatural being. Some of the words are confusing since their origin is from Arabia and the language is foreign. Sometimes I felt as if I was dropped into the cauldron and had to figure out what else was in there with me. Bits and pieces of the story are told in flashbacks by the characters he meets. Fortunately, there is a list of characters and descriptions in the front of the book. This is really helpful when trying to sort it all out. There is also a map and a list of tribes, all of which are really necessary to reorient yourself in the book, now and again.
Although I did not find it an easy read, as it moved around sometimes seemingly at random, I was always drawn back into the story by the beautiful way it was written.
The book begins in the early part of the 1900's. A young boy, Ivor Willoughby, desperately missing his military father, who is stationed in the Middle East in a territory from which he cannot return for regular visits and eventually, for none at all, makes it his life's dream to one day, grow up and search for him. He follows his father's path into the military and when he posts to the same region, discovers that his father is somewhat of a legend, called Ullobi, but no one will either discuss him or else no one really knows where he is currently. However, his adventures precede him wherever he turns up. Coincidentally, he runs into people who knew his father and begins to piece together a history for him complete with a female warrior of fantastic strength and courage whose identity is hidden, possibly for her own protection, from the Wahhabis who would punish her if they knew she was a warrior.
Told with a subtle humor and hints of historic memory about the birth of the various nations of the Middle East and their quest for domination and/or independence, this story moves along, almost like a fantasy. At times, I am not sure if the memory is one related to reality or a supernatural being. Some of the words are confusing since their origin is from Arabia and the language is foreign. Sometimes I felt as if I was dropped into the cauldron and had to figure out what else was in there with me. Bits and pieces of the story are told in flashbacks by the characters he meets. Fortunately, there is a list of characters and descriptions in the front of the book. This is really helpful when trying to sort it all out. There is also a map and a list of tribes, all of which are really necessary to reorient yourself in the book, now and again.
Although I did not find it an easy read, as it moved around sometimes seemingly at random, I was always drawn back into the story by the beautiful way it was written.
January 13, 2011
I received this book through the goodreads.com first-reads program.
I was excited to win this book, because I don't normally read historical fiction, so this gave me a good excuse. Plus I was led to believe this novel would be in the "action, adventure, with a little bit of romance" genre, which I generally enjoy.
All in all, I felt like this book could have been written by three different authors. The first third of the book was painful to get through. The middle was so-so. And the last third was more enjoyable. The beginning seemed very disjointed and did not keep my attention at all. I am lucky I managed to make it through the beginning, or I never would have realized the book had some good points too. Some of the narrative was extremely dull, and at times the story verged on "trashy romance novel" which I am perfectly happy with avoiding. Toward the end of the book, there was a more connected story being told, which was engaging and at times entertaining. The main characters were also more developed at this time, which made me interested in continuing to read the book. Unfortunately, throughout the book, the author's voice is very odd, in a way which is hard to describe. It was almost like it was written in an elementary tone, or in some way which makes it hard to fully engage in the story.
Throughout the book it was hard to keep track of the various characters and tribes, but I had been warned about that from reading some other goodreads.com reviews. For the most part I tried to not get hung up on the details, and that actually worked out fairly well. It was far easier to enjoy the book if I just had a general idea of who was who, rather than having to flip to the tribe reference section of the book to fully understand every paragraph. It seems silly to ignore these details, but a basic idea of who was good and who was bad was good enough.
I was excited to win this book, because I don't normally read historical fiction, so this gave me a good excuse. Plus I was led to believe this novel would be in the "action, adventure, with a little bit of romance" genre, which I generally enjoy.
All in all, I felt like this book could have been written by three different authors. The first third of the book was painful to get through. The middle was so-so. And the last third was more enjoyable. The beginning seemed very disjointed and did not keep my attention at all. I am lucky I managed to make it through the beginning, or I never would have realized the book had some good points too. Some of the narrative was extremely dull, and at times the story verged on "trashy romance novel" which I am perfectly happy with avoiding. Toward the end of the book, there was a more connected story being told, which was engaging and at times entertaining. The main characters were also more developed at this time, which made me interested in continuing to read the book. Unfortunately, throughout the book, the author's voice is very odd, in a way which is hard to describe. It was almost like it was written in an elementary tone, or in some way which makes it hard to fully engage in the story.
Throughout the book it was hard to keep track of the various characters and tribes, but I had been warned about that from reading some other goodreads.com reviews. For the most part I tried to not get hung up on the details, and that actually worked out fairly well. It was far easier to enjoy the book if I just had a general idea of who was who, rather than having to flip to the tribe reference section of the book to fully understand every paragraph. It seems silly to ignore these details, but a basic idea of who was good and who was bad was good enough.
September 6, 2011
I won this book via First Reads, having requested it because I love reading novels set in Northern Africa and the Middle East, and the time period (1930s, mainly) piqued my curiosity.
This "novel" struck me as far more of a historical travelogue than a novel with any particular plotline to properly sustain it (other than the main character Ivor Willoughby's quest to find his enlisted father, who abandoned his English family years previously). I agree with another reviewer that it almost seemed like a non-fiction work, and it was at times quite a dense and plodding read.
Interspersed between wonderfully evocative landscape descriptions and interesting (if sometimes hard to follow) tribal histories, several narrators are used to introduce pieces of Willoughby's father's past as it (and he) weaved through time and place, centering around a former slave called Na'ema, although it's never really clear WHY she's so central to the story until the very end of the novel.
As Willoughby himself weaves through the same landscape as his father but at a different time, he also hears many contemporary stories from a seemingly wide variety of people who provide a glimpse into his father's life, enough to propel him forward in his journey, at any rate, but never enough to actually locate his father or provide a recent sighting or description of him. The reader is at times forced to make a logical leap to move forward in the novel with Ivor, and is ultimately left to piece all the many morsels together, which I'm not entirely sure I did.
Unless you are very interested in the Middle East in the 1930s, I'm not sure there's enough here to warrant a "casual" read.
This "novel" struck me as far more of a historical travelogue than a novel with any particular plotline to properly sustain it (other than the main character Ivor Willoughby's quest to find his enlisted father, who abandoned his English family years previously). I agree with another reviewer that it almost seemed like a non-fiction work, and it was at times quite a dense and plodding read.
Interspersed between wonderfully evocative landscape descriptions and interesting (if sometimes hard to follow) tribal histories, several narrators are used to introduce pieces of Willoughby's father's past as it (and he) weaved through time and place, centering around a former slave called Na'ema, although it's never really clear WHY she's so central to the story until the very end of the novel.
As Willoughby himself weaves through the same landscape as his father but at a different time, he also hears many contemporary stories from a seemingly wide variety of people who provide a glimpse into his father's life, enough to propel him forward in his journey, at any rate, but never enough to actually locate his father or provide a recent sighting or description of him. The reader is at times forced to make a logical leap to move forward in the novel with Ivor, and is ultimately left to piece all the many morsels together, which I'm not entirely sure I did.
Unless you are very interested in the Middle East in the 1930s, I'm not sure there's enough here to warrant a "casual" read.
June 16, 2022
- سيدة أبها عنوان لرواية تاريخية، خلال فترة إنضمام منطقة عسير وتوحيد المملكة على يد الملك عبدالعزيز.
- توجد في بداية الرواية خارطة بسيطة للأماكن المذكورة، أيضاً قائمتي باسماء الشخصيات ودورها، و اسماء القبائل والمناطق .
- الجندي البريطاني روبرت #ويلوقبي الذي يعرف بين القبائل العربية( ألوبي)، ذهب للجزيرة العربية لتأمين النفوذ لبلاده. خلال فترة زمنية حرجة، تم فيها دحض الأتراك، وترأس زيد بن طاهر ومن بعده ابنه تبرالله على حكم منطقة عسير وعاصمتها أبها. وبدأ تشكل ملامح الدولة السعودية.
- يبحث الابن ويلوقبي عن سر والده المفقود في الأراضي العربية، يتتبع محطات رحل لها والده وصداقاته القوية مع أمراء عسير من ابناء القبائل. متنقلاً طوال الساحل الغربي متذرعاً بعمليات البحث عن الجراد، يلتقي الابن ويلوقبي بعد سنوات طوال بأصدقاء والده تباعاً كل منهم يحكي جزء ومن ثم يصله بالشخصية الاخرى حتى تكتمل أحجية والده، ومن خلال القصة ألوبي تتحدد معالم سيدة #أبها الغامضة.
- بدأ بالبحار التركي وتجول على ظهر سفينته موانئ البحر الاحمر. يتجه للخرمة ويتلقى بتاجر الرقيق فردان بن مرزوق المعروف بروعة الفتيات التي يقدمهن، و تساعده في تجهيزهن زوجته، يخبره فردان عن نعيمة الفتاة المخطوفة والتي حظي بها ابن أمير أبها تبرالله. لتحط رحاله أخيراً في أبها ويتعرف على خادمة نعيمة الإثيوبية ايتزا.
- في جنبات الرواية الكثير من الأحداث التاريخية حول المنطقة، وصف عاداتهم وتقاليدهم، منازلهم وحصونهم، الخلفية الدينية لابناء المنطقة، والحركات الدينية السائدة وقتها، الانقلابات بين أبناء القبائل، والأثر الكبير عند انضمامهم للمملكة.
- متعجبة من الكم الهائل للتفاصيل المذكورة في الرواية، سواء تاريخية، سياسية، جغرافية، أو دينية. اعتقد انه لايجوز الإتكاء على رواية كمرجع تاريخي صرف، لكن لا أنكر انها قد تكون مدخلاً للاطلاع على حوادث تاريخية، أو البحث في شخصيات معينة 💜💜
October 23, 2010
The Mistress of Abha is written by William Newton, who died earlier this year. Newton spent his professional career as a doctor and started writing novels in his retirement. The Mistress of Abha is his second published novel.
This novel is set in 1930's Arabia. Ivor Willoughby has decided to search for his long lost father. He knows that his father left his mother shortly after his birth to serve with the British in Arabia. He returned for one brief visit when Ivor was a teenager and then disappeared again. Ivor is now an adult and ready to solve the mystery of his father.
The book begins slowly as it builds momentum for Ivor's adventure in Arabia but it does hold the promise of eventual thrills. I read an article by a reader who explained that she always gave a boring book fifty pages before deciding to put it down, and it seemed that in this case right at page fifty the book suddenly got interesting and exciting.
While in Arabia, Ivor meets with great danger, hears stories of tribal battles, the slave trade, love and intrigue amidst the harems, and eventually uncovers the mystery surrounding the tales of his father--Ullobi. Arabia is definitely not a dull place. Newton writes historical detail and plot well. However, what the book lacks is passion. Overall, I enjoyed The Mistress of Abha and stayed up late to finish it last night.
This novel is set in 1930's Arabia. Ivor Willoughby has decided to search for his long lost father. He knows that his father left his mother shortly after his birth to serve with the British in Arabia. He returned for one brief visit when Ivor was a teenager and then disappeared again. Ivor is now an adult and ready to solve the mystery of his father.
The book begins slowly as it builds momentum for Ivor's adventure in Arabia but it does hold the promise of eventual thrills. I read an article by a reader who explained that she always gave a boring book fifty pages before deciding to put it down, and it seemed that in this case right at page fifty the book suddenly got interesting and exciting.
While in Arabia, Ivor meets with great danger, hears stories of tribal battles, the slave trade, love and intrigue amidst the harems, and eventually uncovers the mystery surrounding the tales of his father--Ullobi. Arabia is definitely not a dull place. Newton writes historical detail and plot well. However, what the book lacks is passion. Overall, I enjoyed The Mistress of Abha and stayed up late to finish it last night.
October 12, 2010
I received this book as part of the first-reads program.
If you look at this novel as a historical narrative rather than a grand adventure story (as it is described on the blurb) it is considerably more enjoyable. This novel is a series of stories about Robert Willoghby, a British Army officer stationed in Arabia in during early part of the 20th century, as related to his 30-year-old son, Ivor, by the individuals that Ivor encounters on his search through Arabia for Robert.
This novel made me think of a necklace-each story told to Ivor a bead on the string that is his search for his father. This, combined with Newton's excellent grasp of the history and culture of the region, makes it seem as if the events in the novel are true, especially as Newton injects a number of historical figures and events into the story. I also particularly liked that Newton managed to give each individual a distinct voice while still making it clear that we are reading Ivor's account of those individuals and their stories.
Once I realized that this wasn't an adventure story, I enjoyed this novel-the history was excellent, both Robert's history and Ivor search for it were engaging stories, and the character development was great.
If you look at this novel as a historical narrative rather than a grand adventure story (as it is described on the blurb) it is considerably more enjoyable. This novel is a series of stories about Robert Willoghby, a British Army officer stationed in Arabia in during early part of the 20th century, as related to his 30-year-old son, Ivor, by the individuals that Ivor encounters on his search through Arabia for Robert.
This novel made me think of a necklace-each story told to Ivor a bead on the string that is his search for his father. This, combined with Newton's excellent grasp of the history and culture of the region, makes it seem as if the events in the novel are true, especially as Newton injects a number of historical figures and events into the story. I also particularly liked that Newton managed to give each individual a distinct voice while still making it clear that we are reading Ivor's account of those individuals and their stories.
Once I realized that this wasn't an adventure story, I enjoyed this novel-the history was excellent, both Robert's history and Ivor search for it were engaging stories, and the character development was great.
December 26, 2010
I liked this book..Newton is a treasure trove of information about Arabia! He knew so much about the wars, conflicts, culture, storytelling and history of the country. This was interesting, but got old and somewhat confusing at times. The best parts of the book were when he told stories about the families. Newton would get involved in telling their story and culture and chapters would fly by. He really had a handle on how they lived and told stories to each other. The mystery took too long to develop, but was very engrossing when it did. I couldn't put down the last 1/3 of the novel. Newton really was a great writer. As he has passed away, it made me wonder if the book was printed before he had a chance to smooth and cut a little. It was choppy with the long stretches of history and then story/mystery. Newton was an amazing writer with alot of knowledge. Ultimately, I liked learning about the history of Arabia and loved reading the mystery and storytelling.
June 15, 2011
The story sounded like it would be a good one, but I just can't finish it. I think this must be a male version of a Mary Sue book. Too much womanizing (father goes through all the women in town, son goes through all the women on the boat) and now it's moving on to Arabia with harems, concubines, and white slaves. Ho hum! There might be an adventure tale in there somewhere but all I see is a misguided son who has made a godlike superhero of a father he's only seen once or twice. What an ass the father is - leaves his wife and child to go off to war and is having too much fun to come home except once for an overnight visit. Why not get a divorce and let your poor wife have a life? I may have it all wrong and things may turn out different in the next two-thirds of the book, but I'm not interested in finding out.
December 18, 2015
I was contemplating whether i wanted to finish this book or not. The beginning, truth be told, was such a pain in the ass. The moment of redemption in this book is when Etza told the tale of Naema, Tabalrha and Nuha in the middle of the book. I never expected a happy ending from this book because people kept saying and insinuating that his father (Wallougby or known as Ullobi in the land of Arabia) might be dead. However, ivor didnt give up and kept seaching for a clues of where his father might be. From being held prisoner to being chased across the desert by a group of bandits, he just kept going. This book, if it to be summarized in a sentence, Its all about a son who wanted to disclose his father's life after being so long absent but in the same time, he also wanted to conclude it.
October 11, 2010
I got this book for free from a Goodreads giveaway, so I really wanted to love it. I enjoy books about historical times and foreign places, so I thought it would be a great read. I was a little let down though. I'm glad I had the actual book, and not a Kindle download, because I was constantly having to refer back to the list of characters, tribes, and map at the beginning of the book. The first half of the book was very complicated, because of all of the unfamiliar Arabian tribes, place names, and people names (wait, is the author refering to a person, place, or tribe?). The story got better toward the end, but I'm not sure it was worth the effort to read.
December 4, 2010
Starting off, I found the book really difficult to engage with; long passages recounting family and geographical history were distracting when trying to follow the story. However, I have set a rule for myself to finish any book I start, even if it is just skimming through, and I am glad I did. The narrative begins to pick up about halfway through and becomes quite an interesting read. At times, I did have to skim over the author's description of the history of conflict between clans or cities, which for ssomeone more interested in history may have been easy to grasp. But by the end I quite enjoyed the book.
I won this book in a First Reads Giveaway.
I won this book in a First Reads Giveaway.
September 19, 2010
I received this book as part of Goodreads' First Reads program. I chose it as a departure from my usual book choices as I am not familiar with early 20th century Middle East. I thought the beginning and the ending read pretty well, but I felt like the progression of the novel somewhat stalled in the middle. There was a fair amount of action and history, which was interesting, but the story did not draw me in as much as some other books. I liked that the writing style seemed to fit the time period. Something was missing for me to say it was great, but it was definitely not bad, either.
January 24, 2011
I won this book free from Goodreads Firstreads. I really liked the idea of this book, but it wasn't quite as good as I had hoped. The writing style was supposed to sound like it was from 1930's which is when the book is set, even though its a very new book. It was mostly the writing style that I didn't like too much, but I really liked the story. I actually learned a lot about that part of the world in the 1930s, which was really interesting. Overall it was a good book, but maybe not exactly my usual style.
October 17, 2010
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and am glad that I did because I enjoyed reading it. This is a story of a young Englishman's search for his father in Arabia in the 1920s, just after the period of Lawrence of Arabia. Certainly it was well-researched, and rings true, giving the real tribal atmosphere of the time, and also giving a good idea of the limitations and opportunities for women. This would be fun to see as a miniseries or movie.
April 17, 2017
I won this book here on a giveaway and couldn't have been more pleased to discover it is a good book.
The story keeps the anticipation right to the very end. It is an epic type that unfolds as it goes on and has adventure, history, love, mystery. Also it features such strong female characters who are inevitably the heart of the story.
The story keeps the anticipation right to the very end. It is an epic type that unfolds as it goes on and has adventure, history, love, mystery. Also it features such strong female characters who are inevitably the heart of the story.
November 19, 2010
The back cover of this book touts it as something of a tantalizing mystery--there are elements of mystery, but it's more historical travelogue and adventure story. You may find keeping all the tribes and geography and timeline straight, as I did, but all in all The Mistress of Abha offers a detailed journey to a time and place to which many Westerners have had very little exposure.
January 9, 2014
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed reading this. It's a little dry but very descriptive. The characters give you a substantial glimpse into Arabic culture. My favorite part is how once a character dies, the author shares the characters most intimate thoughts and sentiments at the end of the chapter. It was like listening to a whisper of the persons spirit
June 30, 2022
I finally finished this book. The "mistress of Abha" doesn't really play a part in the story, at least not as advertised in the blurb on the back. And that was disappointing. This is, however, a fascinating 'history' of how what we know as Saudi Arabia today came to be, told through the lens of fiction.
May 17, 2015
This book drew me in from the start. A man narrates the story of his journey to find his father, who disappeared from his life in the 1920's. An historical fiction of tribes on the western edge of the Saudi Arabian peninsula, and the beginning of King Saud uniting Arabs. The female characters are terribly fascinating.
February 3, 2016
There should be an option on Goodreads for "Did you actually finish this book?", because I did not. I gave it a good go and read about half of it before I decided to cut my losses and move onto something else. The writing style was not for me and the story itself was boring. I wish I had stopped reading the book earlier and just moved on.
October 5, 2010
Ultimately, when you look at Mistress of Abha as a period work designed to reflect the varying tribal and religious of Saudia Arabia, through the eyes of a proper English gentlemen, you appreciate the nuances, detail and very retrained emotional search of a man for his father
December 4, 2013
I agree with parts of several previous reviews: Why are there pyramids on the cover of a book set in Saudi Arabia?; read this as historical fiction, not an adventure novel; it's quite good, but a slow read; and the son is a grossly underdeveloped, unsympathetic character.
October 25, 2019
If I never read another book like this it'll still be too soon. I could list all the reasons I hated it (the colonialist attitude, the fetishisation of WOC, the excessive use of the 'N' word) but mostly it was just badly written and boring.
Currently reading
September 7, 2011Just won this book on Goodreads First Reads. So exciting. Will update as soon as I have received and read the book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews